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After nearly 40 years with the BBC, John Hess is set for retirement

All good things have to come to an end eventually. But after 37 years with the BBC - half of that as political editor for the East Midlands - I've decided it's time to move on.

This will be my last blog but it has offered me an opportunity to look back and reflect.

The tiny village of Boothorpe, in North West Leicestershire, probably captures the biggest economic and political changes in the East Midlands that I've witnessed.

It started with a big hole in the ground and it is now one of the biggest landfill sites in the country.

I was here 18 years ago. The then local MP, Labour's David Taylor, had introduced his own parliamentary bill to toughen planning regulations for opencast mining. It was in response to residents' anger.

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The possibility of Toton being a HS2 hub station has divided candidates in Broxtowe

The East Midlands battleground seat of Broxtowe has a reputation for being the touch and go constituency.

In the last general election, the Conservatives' Anna Soubry took the Nottingham suburban seat from Labour with a majority of less than 400. But after five years of austerity, the outcome in this election is too difficult to call. That's why it is so sensitive.